Abstract
Monacolin K is a secondary metabolite produced by Monascus with beneficial effects on health, including the ability to lower cholesterol. We previously showed that the yield of monacolin K was significantly improved when glutamic acid was added to the fermentation broth of Monascus purpureus M1. In this study, we analyzed M. purpureus in media with and without glutamic acid supplementation using a metabolomic profiling approach to identify key metabolites and metabolic pathway differences. A total of 817 differentially expressed metabolites were identified between the two fermentation broths on day 8 of fermentation. Pathway analysis of these metabolites using the KEGG database indicated overrepresentation of the citric acid cycle; biotin metabolism; and alanine, aspartate, and glutamate metabolic pathways. Six differentially expressed metabolites were found to be related to the citric acid cycle. The effect of citric acid as an exogenous additive on the synthesis of monacolin K was examined. These results provide technical support and a theoretical basis for further studies of the metabolic regulatory mechanisms underlying the beneficial effects of monacolin K and medium optimization, as well as genetic engineering of Monascus M1 for efficient monacolin K production.
Highlights
Monascus is a common saprophytic fungus with practical applications in the food, brewing, and medical industries in China (Lin et al, 2008; Pérez-Jiménez et al, 2018)
Monascus purpureus M1 was obtained from the Chinese General Microbiological Culture Collection Center
The profiles of metabolites in medium detected by UPLCQ-TOF-MS were analyzed by multivariate statistical methods, including principal component analysis (PCA), partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA), and orthogonal partial least squaresdiscriminant analysis (OPLS-DA)
Summary
Monascus is a common saprophytic fungus with practical applications in the food, brewing, and medical industries in China (Lin et al, 2008; Pérez-Jiménez et al, 2018) Monascus species, such as M. ruber, M. fuliginosus, M. albidus, M. rubiginosus, M. serorubescens, and M. purpureus are widely known to produce various secondary metabolites with polyketide structures, such as pigments (Krairak et al, 2000), monacolin K (Endo, 1979), citrinin (Blanc et al, 1995), and γ-aminobutyric acid (Diana et al, 2014). Monacolin K can effectively suppress the activity of a key enzyme in cholesterol biosynthesis (HMG-CoA) as a competitive inhibitor and can regulate blood lipid abnormalities (Su et al, 2003). It can suppress breast cancer cell proliferation (Patel, 2016) and facilitate apoptosis in malignant thyroid cells
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